A group of 50 ultra-Orthodox Zionist rabbis have signed a petition calling on the Jews to continue desecrating the Aqsa Mosque and participate in their march to the holy site on Sunday. The rabbis said the petition, which was published on Jewish websites on Friday evening, comes in the wake of what they described as "terrorist" attacks in Jerusalem.

The petition called on the Jews to ascend the Aqsa Mosque to strengthen their claim to the temple mount and said that their presence at the Mosque is in accordance with Jewish teachings.

The most prominent rabbis that have signed the petition are Dov Lior, Nahum Rabinovitch and Ram Hacohen. Some of these religious figures had issued religious rulings legalizing the killing of Arabs.

The petition considered that the attempted murder of right-wing Jewish activist Yehuda Glick provided the Jews with an impetus to continue their ascension to the temple.

A number of Jewish settlers desecrated the holy Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday morning under tight Israeli police protection.The settlers toured the Aqsa plazas while listening to explanations about the alleged Temple and its location.

Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli policemen and border guards at gates of the holy site searched and confiscated IDs of young men wishing to enter the Aqsa.

Palestinian Women's Association and other institutions in Germany organized a set of events in support of al-Aqsa Mosque as part of the European solidarity week with occupied Jerusalem.

The pro-Palestine events included sit-ins organized Friday outside the French and U.S embassies in Berlin amid large participation of supporters in protest against Israeli continued attacks in occupied Jerusalem.

The participants raised Palestinian flags and chanted slogans against the occupation’s repeated attacks and crimes against Palestinians.

Also in Berlin, hundreds of supporters participated in a workshop and an exhibition on Saturday highlighting occupied Jerusalem’s important and symbolic value to Muslims.

Documentary films were displayed during the events showing Israel's serious violations in occupied Jerusalem against its Islamic and Christian holy shrines.

A similar event was organized on Sunday shedding more light on al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel’s schemes to establish its alleged Temple on the Mosque’s ruins.

Along the same line, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) confirmed that the European solidarity week is still going on in France in support of Palestinian cause and prisoners’ issue in particular.

Several events and sit-ins were organized by French and international human rights institutions throughout France, the PPS said.

French institutions topped by Amnesty International expressed readiness to participate in an international campaign in support of Palestinian prisoners.

The campaign would document Israel’s systematic violations in its jails and detention centers.

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Monday nabbed a number of Palestinian civilians in Occupied Jerusalem and heavily assaulted others.A PIC correspondent quoted by-standers at the scene as reporting that the IOF nabbed four Palestinian young men after having stormed their family homes in Isawiya and Jabal al-Mukabir in Occupied Jerusalem.

Two more youths were abducted by the IOF from Jerusalem’s town of Silwan, south of holy al-Aqsa Mosque.

In a related development, the IOF rounded up 21-year-old Palestinian young lady Shourouk Ayman Abu Rateb, a resident of Um Tuba village and a mother of a two-year-old kid, and kept interrogating her for long hours allegedly for attempting to stab an Israeli occupation soldier at a military checkpoint pitched near the main entrance to the Shuaf’at refugee camp.

Sources based at the camp further reported the subjection of the Palestinian teenager Omar Fahmi al-Zughir, 18, to heavy beating at the hands of the Israeli light rail guards.

Omar’s father said the bunch of Israeli vandals dragged his son to a nearby bush before they stripped him of his clothes, and searched him in such a remarkably offending manner in the presence of a squad of the Israeli occupation police and border cops.

Earlier, overnight on Saturday, a gang of fanatic Israeli settlers heavily assaulted a Palestinian civilian from Beit Hanina, north of Occupied Jerusalem, before they hurriedly walked out of the area.

The Jerusalemite civilian was rushed to a hospital to receive urgent treatment for the wounds he sustained in the assault.

Meanwhile, Raed Abu Bashir, lawyer of the family of Palestinian martyrs Udai and Ghassan Abu Jamal, spoke out against the mounting house demolitions launched by the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) in Jerusalem’s Jabal al-Makbar.

“Such arbitrary demolitions make part of pre-planned policy of collective punishment pursued by the IOA against Jerusalemites,” he charged.

“Over 760 families in Jabal al-Mukabir are subjected to heavy fines; 280 homes are threatened with demolition and 28% of land tracts are only licensed for construction,” he further charged.

He warned of Israel’s attempts to isolate Occupied Jerusalem from its geo-political milieu and crack down on Palestinian civilians via abduction campaigns and random shooting.

He held Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the IOF responsible for the death of Udai and Ghassan Abu Jamal, calling for legal action against such Israeli crimes and returning the bodies of the two Palestinian men.

Earlier, on Wednesday, the Magistrate’s Court turned down the appeals of lawyer Mohammad Mahmoud to return the bodies under the pretext of underway investigation procedures.

For his part, Jerusalem’s Mufti Sheikh Mohammad Hussein urged the IOA to immediately release the youths’ bodies so as to enable the family to carry out the burial rituals as stipulated by the Islamic faith.

“No human being should ever be punished for crimes committed by another person. These families have the right to live in dignity,” he said. “Such Israeli procedures are just intolerable and will only simmer even further the tension rocking Occupied Jerusalem.”

“We are facing a real war waged by the racist Israeli occupation government to grab hold over Jerusalem and enforce a spatio-temporal division on Muslims’ holy al-Aqsa Mosque,” journalist and political analyst Rasem Ubeidat said.

“Such felonies amount to war crimes. House demolitions are war crimes that do stand in sharp contrast with the Fourth Geneva Convention,” he added.

He further spoke out against Israel’s violation of Muslims’ religious freedom via its frequent sacrilegious assaults and state vandalism on Islamic holy sites and the peaceful Muslim congregation across the Occupied Palestinian territories.

Udai and Ghassan passed away following a retaliation-attack on a Jewish synagogue in Occupied Jerusalem, an attack dubbed by historiographers as a natural retort and expected scenario to Israel’s terrorism on Palestinian civilians and Muslims’ sanctuaries.

Senior Hamas official Khaled Qaddoumi said the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem would never be alone in defending the Aqsa Mosque, and their Muslim brothers and sisters around the world would never forget their first Qibla (prayer direction).

Qaddoumi made his remarks in a speech during the annual general congress of the Pakistani Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, held on Saturday in Lahore.

"The Aqsa Mosque is not alone, and this blessed meeting is the best proof, reflecting that the Muslims have never forgotten their first Qibla, and will remain loyal to it and raise sooner or later an army to liberate Jerusalem," the Hamas official stated.

He stressed that the Muslims from all nations and groups are invited today to defend the Aqsa Mosque.

"Hamas and al-Qassam Brigades promise you that it will be adherent to its oath to liberate Palestine, and they are waiting for the great army of this great people to join the liberation war," he underscored.

Qaddoumi also expressed his thanks to the Islamic party for its positions in support of the Palestinian cause and for dedicating most of its annual meeting's activities to highlighting the issue of Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque in particular and Palestine in general.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Qaddoumi toured the Palestine photo-exhibition hall, which contained pictures on Israel's atrocities during its last war on the Gaza Strip and its violations in Jerusalem and at the Aqsa Mosque.

Senior Hamas leader, Dr. Ahmed Yousef, said in an exclusive interview with the PIC that a projected “third intifada” (uprising), religious at heart, is expected to burst out in the face of the Israeli occupation.“There is no doubt that such an unprecedented upsurge in the rate of anti-Israeli occupation demos and protests against settler vandalism are all forerunners of a coming third intifada,” he said.

“Had not the demos that swept all cities of the West Bank been disbanded by the Palestinian government, a third intifada would have perhaps seen the day,” he confirmed.

He attributed the projected uprising to Israel’s mounting sacrilegious assaults on Muslims’ holy al-Aqsa Mosque and intimidation of the peaceful Muslim congregation in an attempt to perpetrate its Judaization plots and enforce a spatio-temporal division on the Mosque as it had already done at al-Khalil’s Ibrahimi Mosque.

According to Yousef, a religious intifada is inescapably coming out soon due to the striking outburst of Israeli terrorism.

The Hamas leader raised alarm bells over Israel’s exploitation of the “Islamophobia scarecrow” sounded across the U.S. and a few countries of the West to sharpen the world’s abhorrence of adherents of the Islamic faith, thus leaving larger room for the perpetration of its Judaization conspiracies and the misappropriation of holy al-Aqsa Mosque.

Yousef dubbed current regional and international moves to soothe tension across Occupied Jerusalem unproductive initiatives that exacerbate even further Israel’s despotism and tyranny against the Palestinian and Muslim masses.

He hailed the recent attacks carried out by Palestinian resistance fighters and civilians in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem, describing them as “natural retorts” to Israel’s terrorism.

“Such spur-of-the-moment retaliation-attacks reflected the will of Palestinians and Muslims in the West Bank,” he said. “The responses came as notices to the Israeli occupation. Each and every Palestinian can turn into a ‘ticking time bomb’ whenever his/her sanctuaries are at stake.”

He acclaimed Iran’s pro-Hamas positions, saying: “Iran has played a decisive role in mobilizing the masses in favor of the Palestinian cause and resistance.”

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, a preacher of the Aqsa Mosque, said that the Israeli occupation's serious and unjust practices at the Aqsa Mosque are the main reason behind the growing tension in occupied Jerusalem.

In his Khutba (sermon) on Friday at the Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Sabri criticized those who call for calm in Jerusalem while Israel persists in its aggressive practices against Muslim worshipers at the Mosque and its support of its desecration by Jewish settlers.

"Have they even been able to stop the occupation's growing aggressive practices against Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque?" The preacher asked, addressing those who demand the Palestinians to calm the tense situation in the holy city.

"Can such calm be realized by determining the ages of Muslims allowed to pray at their Aqsa Mosque? Can the clam be achieved by letting the Jews defile the Mosque's courtyards? Or can such a thing happen if electronic entrances are installed there or if our women are prevented from entering the Mosque and assaulted," he questioned further.

He stressed that the brave Palestinian men and women of the holy city would not give up defending Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque.

"They would never be affected by the defeatist positions of some of their fellow citizens who forsake them in times of adversity or be intimidated by the occupation's iron fist and the unjust six decisions that have been issued against the Jerusalemites by the Zionist mini cabinet," the preacher added.

He also highlighted that the Aqsa Mosque is a place of worship for Muslims alone and they have the right to stay inside it for their religious activities and prayers without any time, age or entry restrictions.

A Jerusalemite delegation met and briefed Friday the European Union Ambassador to Palestine John Rutter on Israeli mass punishment policy carried out in occupied Jerusalem in reference to Israel’s recent demolition orders.

The delegation includes Dr. Rafiq Husseini, Director General of al-Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital, and national and Islamic figures in occupied Jerusalem.

During the meeting, the delegation pointed to the Israeli demolition orders against Palestinian martyrs’ homes and Israeli continued rejection to hand over the bodies of the Jewish synagogue attackers Ghassan and Uday Abu Jabal.

For his part, the EU Ambassador to Palestine said that the European Union represented by five European ambassadors expressed dissatisfaction following the Israeli cabinet decision to demolish the homes of four Palestinians behind recent attacks.

The ambassadors of Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain conveyed this message at a meeting with senior Israeli Foreign Ministry officials on Thursday and called for restoring calm to occupied Jerusalem.

Rutter criticized Israeli double-standard policy in dealing with attacks carried out in occupied Jerusalem, noting that Palestinian attackers’ homes are demolished while no punitive measures were taken against Jewish settlers who kidnapped and burned to death the child Mohamed Abu Khudeir.

The delegation called on the EU to practice more pressures on the Israeli occupation authorities to stop the demolition policy and to hand over the synagogue attackers’ bodies to their families.

The Jerusalemite delegation warned of the serious implications of Israel’s coercive policy of arming extremist settlers and turning a blind eye to their crimes and violations against Jerusalemites.

The EU Ambassador vowed to make all possible efforts in coordination with the European Union office in Tel Aviv and Brussels in order to halt Israel’s demolition policy against Jerusalemites’ homes.

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli authorities declared a new security plan to provide security and protection for Jewish individuals while ignoring the safety of Jerusalemite natives who are exposed to systematic daily attacks by Israeli settlers and policemen.

Head of the Israeli municipal council in occupied Jerusalem Nir Barkat intends to execute a new security plan to provide security and protection for Jewish individuals, Israel's channel 2 revealed.The PIC reporter in Jerusalem described the plan as racist, affirming that it ignores the safety of Jerusalemite natives who are exposed to systematic daily attacks by Israeli settlers and policemen.

The plan, which will be launched as of Sunday, includes the deployment of dozens of police patrol cars across the holy city and armed security guards near Jewish institutions as well as some surveillance balloons around the city.

The Israeli military and security measures in and around villages and cities in the West Bank and in occupied Jerusalem using concrete cubes turned them into isolated cantons, according to Palestinian citizens and officials.Eyewitnesses said the Israeli army closed the entrances of al-Ram, Northern Jerusalem, Sinjil, Aboud, Deir Abu Mishaal and a number of Jerusalem towns using concrete cubes during this week, in addition; it has set up military checkpoints in different locations.

Palestinian districts in eastern Jerusalem and in the West Bank have been witnessing clashes with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) for several months; in protest at the occupation policies, the daily arrests and the repeated storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by settlers.

And as a result of the escalated storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestinians have recently carried out attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank that resulted in the death and injury of a number of Israelis, the last one was on Tuesday (18/11), when two Palestinians, who were killed on the spot by the Israeli police, attacked a synagogue in West Jerusalem, killing 5 Israelis and injuring others.

Occupation racism

For his part, Ziad Abu Ein, the man in charge with the settlements and the Wall file in the Palestine liberation organization (PLO), said that Israel is creating new ghettos by closing the main entrances to cities and villages in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, similar to the apartheid cantons in South Africa, according to Anadolu News Agency.

He added that Israel started to use this method as a mass punishment each time the Palestinians carried out attacks against Israeli targets. He pointed out that Israel used this method in the first intifada (uprising) in 1987 and in al-Aqsa intifada in 2000. He went on:" Since 2002, Israel has isolated 11 Palestinian towns with the Separation Wall and electronic gates, and has set up 63 checkpoints in the West Bank."

At the entrance of al-Ram town, scores of Palestinian vehicles are stranded after closing its entrances, and citizens are moving on foot. The entrance to the town usually witnesses violent confrontations with the Israeli occupation troops.

According to citizens, closing the gates has stopped normal life in the town, traders and employees have to reach their work places on foot, which takes a lot of time. Furthermore, merchants said they cannot enter goods or foodstuffs into the town.

Israel intensified its security measures at the military checkpoints in the West Bank and set up flying roadblocks between the Palestinian villages and towns under the pretext of maintaining security.